Crouching Tiger Hidden Flacon

The Journey So Far vol.1

I have no idea when and where I got started with perfumes, probably by sniffing interesting looking bottles on the vanity tables (at homes of relatives and family friends), which were my favourite hang-outs as a kid. Mirrors, lippies, jars, bottles... couldn't get enough. I also started to read about scents very early from my mother's and aunt's beauty & fashion mags.

But the definite starting point of my perfume collecting was when I wished Anaïs Anaïs or Rive Gauche for Christmas and got both. I was thirteen, and already a proud owner of two scents of my very own. I wore Anaïs Anaïs to school, and Rive Gaucheparfum for "special occasions".

When I finished school and went to work at eighteen, Coco was the first scent I bought for myself with my first salary. It remained a signature for years, until I found Égoïste. A gay friend had a mini which he didn't like, but I did, and I got a bottle of my own. It was my first men's scent, and taught me to check out the men's scent offerings as well. During these "Chanel years" of my late teens and early twenties, No 5 was my special occasion scent, which I had only in parfum. Then I thought it would become my signature when I was "old enough". Apparently that hasn't happened yet, because the EdP I got on my 40th birthday still remains unused...

While the Chanels were hogging the limelight, I also wore occasionally Salvador Dalí and Balahé. I also owned Poison briefly, but it turned out to be a mistake buy, and I later gave it away. Rive Gauche EdT suffered the same faith. I had worn Opium about a year earlier, but Coco came, saw and conquered, and took Opium's place as my favourite spicy Oriental.

The next scent I bought was Sublime and it still remains one of my favourites. Then all was quiet on the Fragrant Front for years, because as a student I couldn't afford to splurge.